Yours, Mine, and Ours
by laurenwrites
Summary: "I think you should get this one," she says, and Beck can see from the look in her crystal blue eyes that she's begging him to do as she asks. / In which Beck gets that dog he'd been wanting. For Max, Avan's dog.


_For Max_

* * *

"Jade?"

The seventeen-year-old doesn't have any physical reaction to the sound of her name, and instead keeps her focus on her homework. Her boyfriend is sitting on the other side of the couch, his PearBook planted on his lap, as he looks over at her.

"Hmm?" she mumbles.

"I kinda want a dog."

"Shocker," is her sarcastic response. She's working intently on the assignment before her, and doesn't bother looking up to meet his eyes until, "Aren't you supposed to be working on your homework?"

Beck shrugs his shoulders. "I got distracted."

"Another surprise."

Unphased by her sass, he removes his laptop from his thighs and pulls his legs up to sit Indian style. "But how cool would that be, to have our own dog?"

"_Woaaaah_." She suddenly has an interest in the matter. "_Our_ dog? No. I will not have any part in taking care of that. Even if you were getting one, I wouldn't help. But you're not."

"Says who?" He argues. "I have my own space; my parents wouldn't object."

"Yeah, a space you share with _me_. I am _not_ having a puppy running around this tiny RV, being all yappy and peeing everywhere. No thank you."

"Jade, it—"

"Me or the dog, Beck. Me or the dog."

.

"Back here, we have the mutts. We're not sure of most of their parents' breeds, but if you have a question about a particular one, we'd be happy to tell you everything we know!"

Jade rolls her eyes and fights the urge to mimic the eager employee. Beck, on the contrary, couldn't be more excited as he follows the woman in question and tugs his girlfriend alongside him.

"Go ahead and take some time to play with the ones in the pit right now, and if you want to see any of the kenneled ones just holler up at me."

"Thanks," the boy replies before the woman returns to the desk.

"Look at all of them; they're so cute!" He exclaims, infatuated by the little animals that play around inside the quarter-walls that comprise the pit.

"They're annoying," Jade mutters. "Ugh, and they're like, _babies_, Beck. You're going to have to keep an eye on it twenty-four, seven. You won't like that."

"I think it'll be fun! School's out in a month, anyways, and then I won't have anything to distract me from giving my full attention to this puppy."

Wrong choice of words.

Jade's spinning on her heel to exit when he catches her shoulders with both of his hands and pulls her back to him. "Not including my beautiful girlfriend, of course," he butters up, "who will hopefully be there with me to help me—or at least _watch me_—take care of it."

She huffs, crossing her arms over her chest as she steps into the pit behind him. They're careful not to step on any of the dogs as they make their way to the bench, where Jade takes a seat. Beck, instead, plops himself right on the ground so that the animals surround him.

Jade has to admit that she feels bad for the little creatures; they're cooped up in a shelter all day—only having landed in here because no one wanted them or someone abandoned them—and it's clear as they start jumping all over Beck that they obviously don't get a lot of human contact.

The junior in high school laughs as the puppies eagerly take the toys he offers them. "Come on, Jade. Sit down here; it's more fun!"

"I don't like being slobbered on. Or bit, for that matter."

"Aw, come on, Babe. They're little; their mouths are tiny and they just want to play with us."

She sighs, hesitating a few moments before finally joining him on the tile floor. Her body is as close to his as it can be, and he drops a kiss to her lips—as if to thank her for coming with him to pick out the dog.

"I dunno how to decide which one to get," Beck muses.

"Well," Jade offers, "do you want a girl or a boy?"

"Doesn't matter."

"What color do you want?"

"Eh, I don't really care."

Jade rolls her eyes. "Then I can't help you. Just, for the love of all things holy, do _not_ pick one that barks a lot."

He grins, picking up one of the puppies to give it a chew toy. "Look at this one; she's fun," he comments, identifying her sex by the pink collar around her neck.

Jade is looking elsewhere, though, where two other dogs are playfully fighting over a bone. The little gray one wins out, pulling the bone with such force that it tumbles over onto Jade's foot. The dark-haired girl reaches over to touch the puppy, who—after resisting at first—eventually leans into Jade's palm. She rubs the animal's thin hair, even allowing it to scurry up to her lap.

The navy collar around his neck has a yellow tag attached to it, and Jade turns to Beck as takes the dog into her arms. "What's the tag for?" She asks her boyfriend, continuing to rub the puppy's soft fur.

"It means the dog comes from an abusive home. Whoever the shelter got it from had in someway tortured or neglected it. Poor things. Why?"

"No reason."

For the next five minutes, Beck moves around to give other dogs his attention—while pretending not to notice that Jade has played with the same little gray one for the entire time.

"I'm really liking this one," he concludes, referring to the brown-and-white spotted puppy in his arms. "She's calm; she's just sorta been laying in my arms."

Jade furrows her eyebrows. "That's boring. Don't you want one that'll be fun to be around? One with a little fight in it?"

"Nah," he dismisses, testing to see how she'll react.

"Of course you don't," she huffs. "Here comes Boring Beck Oliver, ever-predictable. Doesn't even want a dog with a damn personality."

"Hey," he feigns offense, "it's not like it's _your_ dog—or like you have a better idea."

Jade sighs, and a smile appears almost immediately on Beck's face. "Don't look so satisfied—I haven't even said anything yet."

"Go on," he offers, still grinning.

"I think you should get this one," she says, and Beck can see from the look in her crystal blue eyes that she's begging him to do as she asks.

"How come?"

"I just think you should rescue one that we know has a bad past. It seems more… humane, I guess."

"The dogs are tagged for a reason, you know. Sometimes abused dogs are a little more aggressive; they can be harder to get used to—harder to love."

Jade looks back to the puppy in her arms, so desperate for her attention that he's nuzzling his head against her chest. "Sometimes I'm hard to love," she contests, not wanting to meet his eyes.

Beck chuckles to himself before scooting back over to Jade. When he's facing her again, he uses two of his fingers to tilt her chin up. He lays a gentle kiss on her lips, only to smile at her. "Sometimes you _are_ hard to love. But I wouldn't trade that for anything."

As soon as he gets a smile out of her, he gently rubs the puppy she's holding and nods his head. "Yeah," he says, "let's get him."

.

Beck is halfway through his Calculus homework when he realizes he probably won't be finishing it until much later. Despite his attempts to focus, Max is energetically running all over the RV, knocking into things and chewing anything he can get his small teeth on.

He tries to distract the puppy with a toy, but it doesn't prove to be of any success. "Go get it, buddy! Go!" He encourages, nodding towards the direction in which he'd tossed the bone. Instead of playing with it, though, Max just brings it right back to Beck. He whines pitifully, rubbing his face into his shirt to get his attention.

"Not now, Max," he protests. "Go play."

The dog is insistent, however, and jumps up onto Beck's lap. Jade scoffs as her boyfriend reluctantly sets his homework on the floor beside him and begins to cuddle with the dog. After five minutes straight of giving him lots of attention, Beck sets Max back down and points his little body towards Jade.

The dog does as instructed, running over to pounce on the girl. Unfortunately for them, Max decides to make it a game. He runs back and forth between her and Beck, wanting to be by both of them simultaneously.

"I'm sorry, Babe," Beck sighs, picking up the puppy, "I know you need to study. I'll take him for a walk."

Jade laughs. "I finished twenty minutes ago; you're just slow. I'll take him."

"You don't have to do that."

Jade rises from where she's sitting and grabs the leash from it's spot on the couch. "It's fine; I need some fresh air anyways."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive," she answers, picking up the puppy to secure his leash on. As soon as he's in Jade's arms, he immediately nuzzles into her chest. "You like me better, don't you?" She teases, kissing the top of Max's head. When she looks back at her boyfriend, he's (unsuccessfully) attempting another math problem. "I'll be back in a bit. And," she adds, peering over at his homework, "you have to use the reciprocal functions formula for those. It's the second one on the back of the paper."

He flips the sheet over, bewildered by the information that seems to clear up so much. "What would I do without you?"

Jade chuckles and rolls her eyes as she walks back towards the door. "You'd be failing Calc—and you'd probably be getting a _lot_ more sleep." Beck is grinning as he watches her step out of the RV, but that goes away when he realizes the thoughts she'd just filled his heads with are _much_ more distracting than a dog.

He's pretty uncomfortable until she gets back.

.

"Oh my god! Oh my god, he is the cutest thing ever!"

As Jade continues sliding through her camera roll—recently stocked with pictures of the new puppy—Tori and Cat are murmuring "aww" every few seconds. "When do we get to meet him?" The redhead asks, perking up so the curls in her hair bounce to the side.

"I dunno. Beck and I can probably bring him to Tori's house tonight when we meet for—"

"Yes!" Tori exclaims. "Yes, please do!"

"Yay!" Cat shrieks. "I can't wait to hold him and play with him!" The girl continues to ramble on, but soon Jade finds herself distracted when—out of nowhere—Beck's lips are suddenly on hers. He's come up around her side, his hand on her cheek to turn her face towards him. She's surprised, naturally, but kissing him is never a bad thing.

By the time Beck is sliding in next to his girlfriend, Andre and Robbie have found their seats at the lunch table. He's murmuring something into Jade's ear while the other four of their friends exchange brief conversation, finishing with a kiss to her temple just as he receives a question.

"So, how's life with the dog?" Andre's smiling when he dips a fry into his puddle of ketchup.

Beck is casual about slinging a comfortable arm around Jade, and the public displays of affection aren't anything their group hasn't seen before. "It's been fun," the junior replies. "He's still so little, but he's got a ton of energy."

"But," Jade adds, "when he gets tired, he just crawls over and curls up in your lap."

"How do you get anything done?" Robbie muses, once again amazed by Beck's seeming ability to have everything go his way. "Don't you have to keep an eye on it all the time? Take it out to go to the bathroom? Seems like a lot of work on top of all the chiz we have to do for school and stuff."

"It's not bad," the olive-skinned boy answers. "There's two of us to divide the work between, so we can manage to get all our homework done."

"Wait," Tori pipes in, "is the dog both of yours?"

"He's Beck's."

"_Even though_," Beck contends, "Jade's over every day helping me take care of him; and he likes her more than me; and her cell phone is the second one listed on his collar."

Tori nods her head in understanding, and Jade is too busy looking down at her phone to make any kind of rebuttal.

"Who are you texting, Jade?" Cat wonders aloud.

"Beck's mom," she murmurs offhandedly, not bothering to look up from typing.

"You text Beck's _mom_?" Andre asks, his question directed more at the boy in question rather than his girlfriend.

"I'm used to it," Beck sighs, shrugging his shoulders. "My dog likes Jade more than me, my mom likes Jade more than me—and my mom and Jade text about how my dog is doing when we're not there to take care of him."

Right on cue—after having tuned out of the conversation—Jade pops her head up and holds out her phone towards Beck. "Oh, look at this picture," she says, still staring at the photo she'd just received of Max sleeping on the couch in the Oliver's living room. "He loves that blanket we got him."

The rest of the table keeps talking, but Beck and Jade have checked out—fawning over the picture like it's the greatest thing in the world.

.

It's six o'clock when Beck knocks on the door of the Vega home, Jade standing beside him. As soon as the brunette inside opens the door to let them in, her eyes shoot towards the puppy sitting in Jade's arms and she lets in a gasp of air.

"He. Is. Adorable! He's even cuter in person!" Tori squeals, her peppy tone itching at Jade like a bad rash. "Can I hold him?"

"Be careful," Jade cautions, placing Max slowly into her arms. "He'll bite if you upset him; he's just defensive."

When Tori has the dog comfortably and Jade feels certain that the brunette won't drop him, she allows Beck to take her hand and lead her to join their friends on the couch. After everyone has gotten a chance to hold Max—albeit Jade's glaring eyes to make sure the puppy was being treated perfectly—the dog is back in her lap.

"Okay," Andre says, "so we've got the outline done. Next we start writing the storyboard, and I think—"

"Can't we take a break now?" Cat whines. "We've been working for like, thirty whole minutes. I want some lemonade."

"A break does sound nice," Robbie admits.

"And I can make the lemonade," Tori adds.

"And I should probably take Max outside for a bit," Beck suggests.

"Alright," Andre agrees, "fifteen minutes."

While Tori and Cat make their strawberry lemonade in the kitchen, they watch out the window as Beck and Jade lead the puppy onto the grass. It's the redhead's bubbly voice that breaks the silence.

"I think Beck and Jade are going to get married."

"Why do you say that?" is Tori's response as she slices the fruit—though she can't say she disagrees.

"Look how happy they are with Maxy!" She exclaims, directing Tori's attention to where the couple is playing and laughing with the dog on the front lawn. "Jade doesn't laugh or smile like that unless Beck is around."

"That's true," Tori concedes. "They're together so much—and now they basically even have a _dog_ together. I wonder how they don't get sick of each other."

"I think," Cat muses, "it's sort of the opposite. Beck's not Beck and Jade's not Jade if they're not together. He doesn't get tired of being around her…He has to be around her. You know?"

Tori's never thought about the relationship in the way that her friend is putting it, but it does make a whole lot of sense. He's protective of her because he can't lose her; she's jealous of girls who flirt with him because she can't lose _him_. They fight—and break up—sometimes, but they always work it out; they have to.

They have to be together.

"Look at him!" Jade chuckles as the puppy, attached on his collar to the leash that's wrapped around Beck's wrist. Max is trying to maneuver himself into a position to pee, and Beck and Jade couldn't find it any funnier. His arms are wrapped around her, hands locked comfortably at the small of her back.

"I think it's safe to say he belongs to both of us," Beck declares, turning his head to meet her blue eyes again. "Whaddya say? You wanna be Max's official mom?" He asks, even getting a grin out of her.

"Fine. He's ours," she agrees, still completely amused by Max's further attempts to use the fire hydrant. "You're teaching him how to pee, though."

Beck laughs, "I think I'm okay with that." He leans in to kiss her deeply, not caring who could be watching them from inside. As if it brings Max some kind of peace of mind, he's able to empty his bladder once the couple is no longer paying attention to _him_.

When Beck pulls back and the four eyes are on Max again, the dog once again shies away. "I think he likes it better when I'm kissing you," he muses to his girlfriend, closing the gap between them to smile against her lips.

Jade grins. "I think I'm okay with that."

And so they kiss again.

* * *

**Avan's dog, Max, recently passed away, so I wanted to write something cute to sort of pay a tribute to him. This is bad, but here it is anyways. **


End file.
